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Hello there! I'm Kathleen, a former art teacher and co-creator of two young boys. I'm perpetually in search of creative ways to spice up our daily lives, and always in search of a good cup of coffee and a knitting project. Join us in our adventures in making and doing, and making do.

November 4, 2010

Mayflower Thankfulness Boat {Tutorial + Giveaway}

Thanks to Scotch(R) Double Sided Tape for sponsoring my writing about crafts. Add your comment below to be entered for a chance to win free sample rolls to help with your upcoming holiday needs.

November is such an odd month for decorating, after the Halloween let-down. While I love scattering natural elements throughout the house, like mini gourds, pumpkins, acorns and leaves, sometimes I just feel like making something. With the theme of "thanks" that permeates this season, I decided to create a Thankfulness boat based on the Mayflower.

This is a great craft to do with kids, and it doesn't require much in way of materials, just a paper grocery bag, Scotch tape, copier paper, scissors, a skewer and crayons.

STEP ONE
Cut the bottom off of your paper bag. Save the rest of the bag for using later.

STEP TWO
You will now cut along the seams along the bottom of the bag, which will make the template for your boat. It should look like this:

Since you don't want to see that label on the side of your boat (unless you want to paint it, then don't bother with the next step), you'll use this piece to trace this same shape onto a logo-free area on some other part of the bag.

Trace and cut it out. If you'd like to make more than one boat, you can trace more out of the bag.

STEP THREE Time to fold the boat! Begin by folding it in half

Then fold the sides in, following the line where the angle meets the rectangle in the center.

Do the same on the other side so it looks like this:

STEP FOUR
Tape the edges closed. Kids love this part, at least in my experience as an art teacher, they went crazy for tape and staplers.

Layer a few pieces, reinforcing the sides of the boat. This would work equally well with Scotch Double-Sided tape too.

This would be the time to decorate the boat with crayons, if you wish. It's better to color it when flat.

Next, open up the boat. On the inside of it, flatten out the floor a bit. You might need to fold the inner ends, just to keep it open.

STEP FIVE On to the sails. Fold your piece of copier paper in half,

and draw 2 half-sails, one small and one large. They should be sized appropriately to your skewer so both will fit. You can always trim them later to fit.

Cut out the sails

and write "Give" and "Thanks" on them. You could also use these as place cards and write guests' names on them instead.

Poke the skewer through the sails, and if you'd like, add a little colored flag on top.

STEP SIX
Assemble the boat. I filled mine with crinkly paper, but you could use cotton, reindeer moss, or just shredded paper.

Stick the sail into the boat. For mine, the paper held it in place enough, but you may need to tape it to the bottom of the boat or stick it in a piece of play dough hidden beneath the filler.

I cut out some leaves from the extra paper and wrote some things I was thankful for on them.

This would be nice for kids to do on Thanksgiving, while waiting to eat. Just cut out a bunch, leave out some crayons and markers, and let them have fun.

WIN IT!
And just in case you were interested in scoring some free tape of your own, Scotch 3M is giving away 10 rolls of double-sided tape to 10 randomly chosen winners.To Enter
Leave a comment letting me know how you'd use your double-sided tape.Extra Entry: Share this giveaway either via Twitter, your blog, or in a linky and get an extra entry for each step you do.

You must do the first entry in order to enter ("I want to win, thanks!" comments will NOT be considered). You will have until Wednesday November 10th at 11:59pm EST to enter. The winner will be chosen via random number generator the next day and notified by email. I'll also post the winners on my blog HERE. If I don't hear back from the winner within 72 hours, I'll pick another.

I will use my tape for making my homemade Christmas cards. My kids make their own Christmas cards as well...lots of rubber stamping and taping going on!

I wanted to tell you that I love, love, love the paper Mayflower boat! It is absolutely adorable. When my kids get off the bus from school today, I will be showing them this craft...i know they will want to get started on it right away. What great decorations for our dining room! Thanks!

My favorite way to entertain the kids while I cook or make phone calls is to let them create with our art box. Having tape (especially double sided) is so much cleaner than glue--they make some pretty inspired things!lkziegler[at]gmail[dot]com

Hi Kathleen, just wanted to let you know, my kids and one of their friends all made these boats yesterday after school. They thought it was pretty cool. I loved how they turned out and I blogged about it and included a link to your blog in my post for your tutorial. Thanks again for the great idea.

This is so beautiful! What a timely Thanksgiving craft. (I'm gonna feature this as a green craft on my blog, if you don't mind.)

Oh, and while I'm here, I'll enter the giveaway. ;)

I would use the double sided tape for paper dolls. I draw and color my own, and "laminate" them with contact paper. I like the removable dbl-sided tape for sticking their clothes to them. :) I use the permanent tape for more permanent projects, of course.

Apparently, I shared my love of all types of tape early in my daughters' lives. Never big believers in glue sticks they were convinced that anything could be created using tape. They learned the rolling of tape secret and taped "art" to their Lego creations. They are now adults but I still include a few rolls of fun tape in their Christmas stockings.

I'm a little weird. I won't lick the back of an envelope, instead I tape them shut. I had a friend who worked at an envelope factory and the stuff that gets into the glue are so gross I don't wanna tell you about it. So don't LICK - TAPE.

I would use my tape to scrapbook christmas presents this year. this tape is great because there is no messy glue to contend with .. put it on the back of the pics place lightly and press when you are happy with your placement..absolutely the best product out there.